February 17, 2011

Eminem wins, loses at Grammys

Eminem took home two trophies at Sunday night's Grammy Awards, but considering he had been nominated for 10 awards, it's hard to consider his night a success. Record, song and album of the year were among the categories Eminem was nominated, but neither of his two wins came outside of the rap category. That brings his Grammy total to 13, all hip-hop honors. And even a loss within that genre was a surprise. Eminem and Rihanna's "Love the Way You Lie" was considered a front-runner in the overall categories of record and song of the year, yet didn't even manage to win the rap award for either. It's no secret that I'm not as big a fan of Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind" as my counterparts to the East predictably are, but when given a chance to reward a song about the struggle with domestic violence or yet another ode to New York, which one do you think the Grammys should have picked? Sure, in the country category a tale of despair might be cliche. But in hip-hop, it was unprecedented. And it likely deserved to win more than just its share of Eminem's best rap album award for Recovery. In addition to his two wins over Eminem in the rap record and song categories, Jay-Z also won best rap performance by a duo or group with Swizz Beats for "On to the Next One." Eminem's other award was given to "Not Afraid" for best rap solo performance. Speaking of performances, Cee-Lo, dressed as a giant peacock, sang with Muppets and Gwyneth Paltrow, apparently to soften the blow of singing a song called "F--- You" on national television. It didn't prevent the CBS censors from having an itchy trigger finger with the mute button. They were busy again during Eminem's performance with Rihanna, which midway through became interspersed with Skylar Grey singing "I Need A Doctor," foreshadowing the arrival of Dr. Dre (as if the numerous teases for the performance hadn't spoiled the "surprise" already). Perhaps the performance of an alleged Detox track will help the long-delayed album actually get released this year. (We're still not holding our breath.) Click here for a list of all the rap Grammy winners since 1989.